Mystery cloaks Ala. 'Schoolhouse Door' saga

Alabama's segregationist Gov. George Wallace stood in a doorway on June 11, 1963 to block two black students from enrolling at the University of Alabama.

Alabama's segregationist Gov. George Wallace stood in a doorway on June 11, 1963 to block two black students from enrolling at the University of Alabama.

Photo: Dave Martin, STF

Image 2 of 2

Alabama's segregationist Gov. George Wallace stood in a doorway on June 11, 1963 to block two black students from enrolling at the University of Alabama.

Alabama's segregationist Gov. George Wallace stood in a doorway on June 11, 1963 to block two black students from enrolling at the University of Alabama.

Photo: STF

Mystery cloaks Ala. 'Schoolhouse Door' saga

1 / 2

Back to Gallery

MONTGOMERY, Ala. - For 50 years Peggy Wallace Kennedy has lived in the shadow cast by her father, Alabama Gov. George C. Wallace, when he stood in a doorway and tried to stop two black students from integrating the University of Alabama.

That single episode in the American civil rights movement - his infamous "stand in the schoolhouse door" - attached an asterisk to her name, she says. It's a permanent mark she can never erase, despite her own history as a moderate Democrat who gave early support to candidate Barack Obama for president in 2008.

Always an 'asterisk'

"If you're George Wallace's daughter, people think the asterisk will always be there. 'Oh, your father stood in the schoolhouse door,'" she said in a recent interview.

Translator

To read this article in one of Houston's most-spoken languages, click on the button below.

Kennedy was just 13 at the time. Her mother, Lurleen Wallace, had whisked her away to a lake fishing cabin with her three siblings that day, so they would be nowhere near the wrenching historic drama in which her father had a leading role.

George Wallace, a pragmatic politician and a populist, may or may not have been a true believer in segregation - even though he took office in 1963 with a pledge: "segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever."

On June 11, 1963, he stood in the doorway of the University of Alabama's Foster Auditorium to keep Vivian Malone Jones and James Hood from enrolling for classes.

Wallace stepped aside after President John F. Kennedy federalized the Alabama National Guard.

Jones and Hood enrolled, and Wallace became a national political figure who would run for president the next year.

On the 50th anniversary, all the major players - Wallace, Jones, Hood and Nicholas Katzenbach, the Kennedy administration's representative in Tuscaloosa - are dead.

Wallace died in 1998 after serving four terms as governor, but never once did he discuss the events of June 11, 1963, with his daughter.

Kennedy says his motivations then remain a mystery to her even now.

"He never talked with me about it. I don't even know that he talked with my mother about it. I never heard them have a conversation about the schoolhouse door stand at all," Kennedy said.

She speculates that maybe he was just keeping a political promise, but she can't say for sure.

Culpepper Clark, author of the 1993 book "The Schoolhouse Door: Segregation's Last Stand at the University of Alabama," believes Wallace's daughter is correct in her assumption.

"Wallace clearly bonded with and identified with white voters in Alabama and he kept a promise," Clark said.

'Little bit of hope'

Kennedy said her father's actions were difficult for her to understand because her mother, who also became governor, had raised her not to think that she was better than anyone else.

"He was a different man when he passed away. I can assure you of that," Kennedy said. Kennedy is also a different woman. For years, she stayed in the background as her husband, lawyer Mark Kennedy, rose through the political ranks to become a justice on the Alabama Supreme Court. Only after his retirement did she step out of the shadows, first by endorsing Obama in 2008.

Kennedy, 63, said she has tried in recent years to step out of the shadow of the schoolhouse door and show that families can change.